How a routine flight to Florida turned into one of the most historic days for Air Force One and the man who flew George W. Bush on 9/11

Journal Sentinel photographer Rick Wood was in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Mark Hoffman and Tom Lynn were sent to New York shortly after the attack. This is a look back at the photos they took that week.
Bill Schulz, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As the skies over America emptied of planes on Sept. 11, 2001, one aircraft remained flying — Air Force One.

At the controls on that tragic day was Mark Tillman, who thought he was on a routine trip to Florida with President George W. Bush. Tillman's job that day was to fly the president from Sarasota, Florida, back to Washington, D.C.

As Bush visited an elementary school, Tillman boarded Air Force One to walk through the plane on his normal check through the aircraft. A radio operator told Tillman he was needed upstairs, and when he headed to the upper deck of the Boeing 747 he saw a TV showing live video of the World Trade Center's first tower, which was smoking.

Commentators were saying a light plane had accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center. But Tillman wasn't buying it.

Mark Tillman, center, is at the controls of Air Force One on a flight to Al Asad Airbase in Iraq in 2007 for a visit with American troops by President George W. Bush.(Photo: White House)

"Everyone on board knew it wasn't a light plane. I told the navigator we had to get ready to go to New York because there was likely a big loss of life" and the president would want to go to the city, Tillman said.

Tillman will speak about his experiences as Air Force One's chief pilot during Bush's eight years as president at EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Knowing he needed to get Air Force One ready to leave for New York, Tillman walked back down to the main deck to resume his pre-flight check. The radio operator called him again. Flight 175 had just smashed into the South Tower.

In an instant Tillman and the rest of the Air Force One crew knew the attacks were not accidents and they needed to relocate the president as soon as possible.

Mark Tillman piloted Air Force One during President George W. Bush's eight years in office, including Sept. 11, 2001. He is speaking at EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh on Sept. 11.(Photo: White House)

"This was a terrorist attack from within the United States. Things were happening on the East Coast with definite targets. There was a lot of fog of war," recalled Tillman, 61. "We were not sure how the president fit into this. We assumed the worst case that the president would be the next target."

The Florida native joined Air Force ROTC at Tulane University where he earned a degree in chemical engineering and planned to be an engineer for a corporation when he finished his military hitch. He designed rocket engines for the Air Force, but when he realized that wasn't his calling, he applied for pilot training.

He started as a C-130 pilot and worked as a flight instructor on the T-37 before being assigned to the VIP airlift unit flying Gulfstream jets to carry congressional officials, the first lady and other dignitaries for the 89th Airlift Wing based at Joint Base Andrews in Washington, D.C.

He was selected as an Air Force One co-pilot in 1992 but wasn't authorized to fly the president until Bill Clinton's tenure. He became chief pilot for Bush.

As soon as Bush boarded Air Force One on Sept. 11, Tillman took off and headed toward Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Shortly before the president got on board, he learned that the Pentagon had been hit and at least one other airliner was missing and believed to be under the control of hijackers.

Mark Tillman in the cockpit of Air Force One. Tillman was Air Force One's pilot during George W. Bush's presidency. He's speaking about what it was like to fly Air Force One on Sept. 11, 2001, in a lecture at the EAA Aviation Museum on Sept. 11.(Photo: White House)

"Military training took over but there was so much going on. We were getting information from a lot of different people. Our job was to relocate the president. We knew how to do that," Stillman said.

Within a few hours all commercial and general aviation flights had been grounded. In fact, the president's parents ended up in Milwaukee when their flight from Washington, D.C., to St. Paul, Minnesota, was diverted to Mitchell International Airport.

For security reasons, Air Force One basically had control of the airspace with Tillman and his crew talking on a secure phone line to the FAA command center so radios could not be used to track the president.

After the president recorded a speech and talked to his staff in a nearly two-hour visit at Barksdale, Air Force One left for Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, where Bush stayed a couple of hours. At one point, F-16 jets from Bush's former Texas Air National Guard unit rose up to meet Air Force One.

"It was significant for us and the president to look out the window and see F-16s on his wing. Whatever we needed them to do, they could do," said Tillman. "It was a great feeling to see those guys. I still choke up thinking about it."

Tillman flew Bush home to Washington, D.C., later that awful day and a few days later flew him to New York. He also organized secret flights to Iraq and Afghanistan, which were challenging in their own way, particularly when Bush decided to visit troops in Iraq on Thanksgiving 2003.

Orchestrating the plan of flying the American president into a war zone without anyone knowing was difficult, but Tillman figured it out.

"I had no concerns even though the U.S. military didn't know we were coming in. They knew a plane was coming and they were to protect the plane," said Tillman.

Flying Air Force One is like flying a civilian Boeing 747-200, Tillman said, with several key modifications including self-defense systems and sophisticated communications equipment as well as the ability to refuel in air because the plane is, in effect, the White House.

Tillman's final flight behind the controls of Air Force One was on inauguration day 2009 when he took Bush home to Texas. The president and his family walked through the plane thanking the crew. By then, with President Barack Obama sworn in, the plane at that moment was not called Air Force One, which is the call sign for whichever aircraft is carrying the sitting president.

When Bush got off the plane, Tillman gave up the command of Air Force One to Obama's pilot, ending his 30-year career in the Air Force.

Air Force One pilot Mark Tillman gives President George W. Bush the window he looked out of on the president's plane on Sept. 11, 2001, for display in Bush's presidential library. The window is inscribed, "The right man at the right time" with an etching of the Manhattan skyline. The presentation was made to Bush on his last flight on Air Force One.(Photo: White House)

Following the last flight, Tillman presented Bush a special souvenir from the Air Force One crew — the plane window the president looked out to see the F-16s from his National Guard unit on 9/11. The window was inscribed, "The right man at the right time," with an etching of the Manhattan skyline.

If you go: Col. Mark Tillman will talk about his experiences in the cockpit of Air Force One on Sept. 11, 2001, at EAA Aviation Museum, 3000 Poberezny Road, Oshkosh, at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Admission to the museum and lecture is free for EAA members and current and retired first responders, $5 for nonmembers. For more information, eaa.org

Meg Jones is at home virtually anywhere in Wisconsin, reporting on the character — and characters — of her home state for the Journal Sentinel and Sentinel since 1993. She was part of a team named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2003 for coverage of chronic wasting disease in the state’s deer herd. A UW-Madison graduate and former member of the Badger band and women's crew team, the Rhinelander native has a passion for covering weather and military affairs. Since the war on terror started after 9-11, she has made eight trips overseas to cover Wisconsin troops in battle — four trips to Iraq and four to Afghanistan.